News

17 April 2025

The Ombudsman Institution approached the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) to ask about deleted data in the applications as released by the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) of licensed companies in the Electricity and Heating sectors for the prices from 1 July 2025. The Secretary General of the Ombudsman Dr. Aysun Avdjiev asks whether a trade secret really exists – that is the explanation that has been given by the EWRC for years for its deletion of the figures in all source data and the communicated final prices in the documents of the energy companies.

We recall that the Ombudsman has repeatedly raised objections with the EWRC Chairman. At a public discussion on electricity prices effective from 1 July 2023, Prof. Diana Kovacheva pointed out that it is unacceptable for the final prices to be excluded from the proposals that were uploaded by the EWRC on its page. Her opinion was that their treatment as a trade secret violates the imperative provision of Art. 15, para 2 of the Energy Act.

Then in the reasons of Decision No. Ц-14 of 30 June 2023, the regulatory authority considered this objection unfounded on the following grounds: “The EWRC has uploaded applications where source data were deleted about these companies that claimed the existence of a trade secret in the information that their submitted applications contain. It should be borne in mind that these applications contain facts related to the companies’ business operations, technological and financial information, cost structure, prices, etc. In this sense, source data in the applications contain information that is an industrial and trade secret and its disclosure is prohibited by the provision of Art. 37 of the Protection of Competition Act (PCA). At the same time, the disclosure of source data from the applications may lead to unfair competition between dealers through the knowledge, use or disclosure of a trade secret, which is a form of unfair competition as specified in the PCA special texts. Premising on that, the EWRC has not violated the provision of Art. 15 of the Energy Act when it published companies’ applications where source data are deleted.”

The Secretary General draws attention to the fact that when the energy companies’ applications for forthcoming prices were examined, it appeared that in its application for the endorsement of energy transmission the Electricity System Operator EAD deleted figures showing prices that have already been endorsed and published in EWRC decisions (Decision No. Ц-17/30 June 2024 and Decision No. Ц-03/01 January 2025).

At the same time, the unified identification code of the companies and the names of their agents have been deleted in the applications of ENERGO-PRO Sales AD and Electrodistribution North AD for the endorsement of prices while these are data that are publicly available in the Commercial Register.

A biased approach is to be observed on the part of the energy companies to the disclosure of the figures indicating the final prices that they have communicated to the EWRC. For instance, the district heating companies Toplofikacia Sofia EAD, Toplofikacia Pleven AD, Toplofikacia Rousse AD, Toplofikacia Vratsa EAD disclosed them for publication while EVN Bulgaria Toplofikacia EAD deleted them. Toplofikacia Sliven – Eng. Angel Angelov explained the deletion thus: “As these figures are confidential and preliminary, they may provoke speculative public comments.” The final price of heating in the application of Veolia Energy Varna EAD is deleted while the company itself has uploaded the price estimate on its website.

“Companies in the Electricity and Heating sectors supply households with services of public interest under monopoly conditions. Mindful of that, the EWRC’s opinion that the disclosure of source data in the price applications may lead to unfair competition is puzzling,” Dr. Avdjiev writes in his letter to the CPC Chair.

He emphasizes that the Trade Secret Protection Act (TSPA) provides that it shall not apply to the disclosure of a  trade secret by its holder, where according to Bulgarian law such disclosure is in the public interest and is necessary to exercise the powers of public authorities (Art. 2, para 1, subpara 2) and the disclosure of a trade secret by the authorities of EU member states when it is provided to them by an undertaking in accordance with national law to exercise their powers and such disclosure is compulsory or permissible according to national law (Art. 2, para 1, subpara 3).

Art. 7, para 2 TSPA reads that the disclosure of a trade secret shall be considered lawful to the extent such disclosure is required or allowed by the Bulgarian (national) law.

Art. 15, para 2 of the Energy Act makes it binding on the EWRC to upload on its website the proposals of the energy companies for endorsement of prices together with all the source data.

“In view of the above, I approach you as the authority competent to give an opinion on the applicability of Art. 15, para 2 of the Energy Act in relation to Art. 37 PCA  as to which source data from the energy companies’ price applications should be made public while I expect from you to make it clear whether the Commission on Protection of Competition has coordinated the information that has been classified as a trade secret by the companies in the Electricity and Heating sectors for its inclusion by the EWRC into the list as per Art. 18, para 1 of the Energy Act,” the Secretary General asks.